The Wetas and the Papas

Today we woke up early to move the car and partake of the free bagel breakfast the hostel was providing; they do a bagel breakfast every Monday.  Simple stuff--just big baskets of bagels, cream cheese, jam, and OJ (only the bagels were in the baskets, not the OJ and spreads).   We found out that the hostel has another kitchen attached to the other dining area--this kitchen is much larger.  Here is how the kitchens in the YHAs work.  There is a communal kitchen (in this case, two) which has several ranges, microwaves, and sinks.  The private one we stayed in (non-YHA) also had a convection oven (which we used to bake new potatoes).  Anyway, there are also many sets of differently-sized plates, glasses, mugs, cookware, silverware, and utensils.  As well as rice steamers, cheese graters, colanders, cutting boards, etc.  You use what you need to to make your meal (some meals are much more elaborate than others).  Then you use the plates, etc. that you need and when you are done, you wash, dry and put away whatever you used.  They have many sinks with dish soap, sponges, brushes, and tea towels; some even have scrubbing pads.  Some kitches offer things such as plastic wrap, salt, spices, others don’t.  All have large refrigerators and cubby spaces (kind of like your elementary classroom mailbox, but way bigger (our private hostel had big plastic tubs with lids.  Each of the cubbies is available for you to store your food and the refrigerators are open.  They have bright stickers available that you write your name, room number and date of departure on. Most hostels also have a “free” or give-away shelf in the cubby area or in the refrigerator for members to leave extra food, or things such as olive oil or spices.  That way less goes to waste.  Each kitchen also has several composting buckets and many recycling buckets.  The refrigerators are cleared out often (thus the need for your date of departure).  Many YHAs are very environmentally concious and remind you with signs everywhere to conserve, recycle, etc.  Every light switch has a sticker to turn off lights (oooops, I forgot to turn off my bed light--hang on a sec.)  Anyway, posters tell you to take short showers (5 minutes), half-flushes (for number 1, full is for the other), reduce/reuse/recycle, don’t smoke, compost, share with others what you cannot use (don’t waste), shop locally,  and the list goes on!  Private hostels don’t have the guilt signs : ).  Our current hostel even has a diagram on the door of how to use the two sheets and comforter (!).  We didn’t feel the need for a diagram--there is even a drawing of where your body goes in there also!  The beds have a mattress pad and fitted sheet.  You put a flat sheet on top of the mattress, then the other top sheet and comforter (with duvet) goes on top of you. Too difficult to figure out on your own?  Way better than sleep sacks, though.  The hostels are great though.  You meed other travelers in the lounges and while you cook.  The people at the desk are knowledgeable and friendly and can tell you where the cheapest places to eat or the best clubs are.  Our hostel even had a bulletin board of 100 free things to do in Wellington.  Well, on to what we did in Wellington!

First we went to the WETA cave (not the same weta as the insects).  This is the group that does the great animation, makeup, props, etc. for many of your favorite movies including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Water Horse, Chronicles of Narnia movies, King Kong, Avatar, District 9, Doctor Who, and others that must be just New Zealand movies and TV shows.  They show a short behind-the-scenes video of the WETA workshops and have really cool collectibles of most of the shows they’ve done.  The collectibles are handmade by the craftspeople that made the originals so they are brilliant.  That unfortunately also makes them very expensive.  The one thing that Annie wanted was a Lord of the Rings ring--with the elvish writing.  But, it was $530 NZ which would still have been over $400 American which is way over her souvenir budget.  We allow each of the children $100 dollars to spend however they want on souvenirs.  Over the years, they have learned to save the money for something they truly want that will remind them of their trip instead of cheap little plastic things made in China.  Joshua always buys models of buildings that he falls in love with and Annie always buys these glass blocks with etchings inside of things such as the Eiffel Tower, penguins, Viking Ships, etc. (they go on a little lighted base that she also has to make them glow).  Well, she couldn’t afford that, and Joshua couldn’t afford the $500 and up miniatures from the movie either.  So, Annie got a cool hat that says WETA on it and Shelby bought a New Zealand stone with the Gondor insignia etched on it in a LOTR leather bag.  We all took pictures with a model of Gollum and took photos of our favorite miniatures of the settings (I especially loved Rivendell and Hobbiton).  

After the WETA Cave, we went to the Te Papa museum.  It is based on Maori culture, but also has many things about New Zealand.  It talks about the Tectonic Plates with a cool exhibit on Volcanoes and Earthquakes and other exhibits on sea and land animals, the loss of land by the Maori people (guess it wasn’t as peaceful as I thought!), the environmental and ecological changes brought about by people living here (such as the loss of plants, wildlife, bush, etc)--the Maori as well as the English settlers.  Also, there was a squid, some contemporary art and children’s discovery rooms.    All of the exhibits were interactive with many cool things to do.  There was a program going on called Let’s Shake which we came upon which is about bringing people of different cultures together--reconciliation.  They were having people that did not know each other sit across from eachother and hold hands with plaster in between.  They hold hands until the plaster dries and talk to eachother.  They plaster casts then were put into containers with the two people’s names written on them.  Then they had a photographer taking a picture of each participant holding their hand out as is to shake hands--often with a funny pose.  They were also recording some of the plastering handshakes and sound bites.  I was with a  woman named Laura from Australia, Randy was with her friend so we all talked.  The children participated too--we convinced Annie to get the email address of the high-school girl that she was paired with.  It will be on a web site and the plaster casts will be put together into an art piece which will tour museums--including the US.  It was fun being part of that!